Due to the large entry the Wiltshire Junior County Closed Tennis Tournament was again held at two locations. Devizes Tennis Club was the main venue with Pewsey Tennis Club being the satellite.
175 entrants, coupled with the fact that players could enter two Age Group events, meant that scheduling all 275 matches to be played was a major task. High winds during the week made playing difficult particularly for the younger players.
This year a new event was included for the 8 & Under age group (Mini Tennis Red) and after some hard fought matches Tommy Lyons from Salisbury and Amelia Bissett from Devizes became county champions and at 9 and under (Mini Tennis Orange) Swindon players George James and Niamh Townsend came out on top.
Harry Baker from Devizes overcame Bhupinder Tanday from Victoria Park, Salisbury in the boys 10 & under singles and then they teamed up together in the doubles but were beaten by Sam Harris & Jamie Barry from Riverside TC, Salisbury.
In the Girls 10 & Under events Zara Collinson from Salisbury won 2 titles when she beat Serena Jackson from Chippenham in the singles and then teamed up with Scarlett Rissone from Ramsbury to win the doubles
Arguably the best performance of the older age groups came from Mikey Puttick from Aldbourne who played up an age group to win the boys 16 & under singles when he beat Francis Smith, Salisbury, and then came runner-up in the 18 & under singles when he lost to Francis’s brother Rory. Mikey then went on to win the 14 & under mixed doubles with Alice More , Ramsbury.
Alice then won her second title when she partnered Georgina Pool , Lansdown, to win the 14 & under girls doubles. Rory Smith also took the 18 & under mixed title partnering Rachana Patel from Swindon for his second title.
Other players who won 2 titles were Katy Hancock from Wootton Basset who won both the girls 16 & 18 singles and Alex Ho, also from Wootton Bassett, who won the boys 14 & under singles and the partnered Archie Walker from Salisbury to win the doubles.
At 12 & under Isabella Fedai from Next Generation, Swindon, and William Bissett from Bath University won the girls and boys titles respectively. Chloe Moxham, Devizes, won the girls 14 & under singles.
One of the best matches saw Nathan Church, Next Gen. and Ben Sherlock, Downton overcome the stiff challenge of Samm Butler & Craig Loxton to take the boys 18 & under doubles.
Ralph Harding, President of Swindon & District Tennis attended finals day and kindly presented the trophies and medals to all the winners and runners up.
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